A steppe eagle wounded in Afghanistan in June and nursed back to health by elite U.S. fighters has cleared a final bureaucratic hurdle and will be coming to New York in early October. After a 30-day quarantine, it will be brought to its new home in Rensselaer County.

"If I was a gambler, I wouldn't have bet a penny on this happening at the outset," said Pete Dubacher, who will take care of the eagle at his Berkshire Bird Paradise in Grafton. "It shows what can happen when people pull together."

The bird was rescued by Navy SEALs after it was shot by an Afghan soldier on a rifle range. They named it Mitch. It is scheduled to fly aboard a military transport plane to John F. Kennedy Airport in early October. The bird will spend a month or so in quarantine near the airport before being released to Dubacher's care.

The unit that has been taking the lead in Mitch's care in Afghanistan includes Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and former Army Special Forces now employed as military contractors.

"I'm astonished and almost speechless," said Barbara Chepaitis, a writer who lives in Altamont. She's the catalyst who pushed the powers-that-be to lift a federal ban on any bird imported from Afghanistan due to fears of avian flu. Mitch tested negative for avian flu, but the quarantine will be required as an added precaution.

"The hopeful part in this journey is that if you're persistent, you can succeed," Chepaitis said. "I'm just an ordinary citizen who was able to leap through a lot of hoops."

Dubacher said he will probably place Mitch in an aviary along with a couple of local red-tailed hawks that were injured. "Mitch has been alone for a while now, so I want him to have some company. Birds are social creatures," Dubacher said.

The steppe eagle, a large bird of prey common in Afghanistan, has a shattered wing and will likely never fly again. The military personnel, who built a cage for it and gave up some of their own meals to feed the eagle, adopted it as a morale-boosting symbol of American freedom and can-do spirit.

As roadblocks emerged and thwarted their plans to send the eagle stateside, the bird became a poster child for Washington bureaucracy and inaction as each agency passed the buck and claimed that its hands were tied.

Chepaitis learned of Mitch's plight shortly after publishing a book, "Feathers of Hope," about Dubacher and his bird sanctuary.

Schumer helped clear the bureaucratic logjam. The senator argued that Mitch represented "a special case." He praised the USDA for a spirit of cooperation in working around the import ban.

Dubacher plans to feed Mitch fresh chicken -- he goes through about 200 pounds a week at the sanctuary -- and frozen rodents. "We'll see what his likes and dislikes are, but I expect he'll cope well in his new home," he said.

Visitors to Dubacher's bird sanctuary should be able to see Mitch in early November. The avian attraction, which opened in 1975, is popular with school groups.

"It will be a great opportunity for school kids to connect with the world when they hear Mitch's story," she said.

She's thinking of writing a sequel to "Feathers of Hope," now that she's spending far less time rattling the cages of bureaucrats.

Reach Paul Grondahl at 454-5623 or by e-mail at pgrondahl@timesunion.com.